This is the queer AF, spooky, Gothic, semi-historical story I've been looking for. Yes, the chapters are long (and the book is pretty long) and there's a weird fourth-wall-breaking narrator but every single character (except maybe Audrey's mom and Hannah the housekeeper) is queer. All of them. And they have conversations about their queerness (with Merit apologizing for policing Audrey's queerness and young early-20th-century ladies experiencing queerness for the first time and long-time queer relationships hidden beneath straight-passing marriages).

This book takes on the mantle of the classic Gothic boarding school story: haunted land, Gothic tropes (repetitive appearances of things that shouldn't be there, depictions of rot/mold, spooky house(s), poisonous plants casually integrated with non-poisonous plants), character(s) that see through the weirdness enough to call attention to it but not enough to dismantle it. But it also is distinctly modern: the use of cell phones and influencer culture, security cameras and Amazon Alexa, convenience stores and Icees and Hollywood. But also history: the Chicago World's Fair, the expectations of women in the early 20th century, seances as a fad, sending children off the foster with distant family, finishing school.

Honestly, I was here for all of it. And while it's long and there are a lot of moving parts, I never found myself bored or confused or tired of the little repetitions (because that's all part of the genre).

Now, since I listened to the audiobook... I love Xe Sands, she's got this kind of joking/sarcastic vibe that really fit with our fourth-wall-breaking narrator. However, for the first 25% of the novel, I struggled a bit. As much as I love Xe Sands, she doesn't quite have the vocal range to really pull off just how many different characters there are. Though her deadpan delivery of Merit and all her prickliness will remain a definite highlight of the audiobook experience.

{Thank you Librofm and HarperAudio for the ALC of Plain Bad Heroines; all thoughts are my own}